Chapter 12

“That was a wonderful dinner, Mrs. Broomfield,” Billy said, patting his full stomach as he pushed his chair away from the table.

“I’m glad you enjoyed it, Billy,” Mary’s mother said, “I’ll be sure to let Carol know.”

“I always forget that you have a cook,” Billy chuckled. “I’m use to take out and my own cooking, not that there’s anything wrong with having a cook.”

“Of course not,” Freddy agreed, “and it was a wonderful dinner.”

“And that’s why we have her as our cook,” Mary’s father said.

“Is there a reason for the extra place setting at the table?” Mary asked her mother.

“Well, dear,” Mrs Broomfield said, “when you asked us if Billy and Freddy could join us for dinner, I guess I assumed that your friend Kara would be joining us for dinner too.”

“I thought about it,” Mary admitted, “but in the end I thought it would be best if just Billy and Freddy joined us.”

“Sounds serious,” Mr. Broomfield said, “is there something the three of you want to tell us?”

“There is,” Mary said nervously, “but we’d like to do it in private, do you think we could move to the living room for this conversation? Maybe ask the servants to make sure we’re left alone?”

“If that’s what you want, dear,” Mary’s mother said. “I’ll talk to the servants and join you in the living room in a few minutes.”

“Now I’m curious,” Mr. Broomfield said as he got up from the dinner table and joined the others as they trooped into the other room. “It must be something big if Mary needs the two of you for extra support. Not that the 2 of you aren’t welcome, boys.”

“That could change in a few minutes,” Freddy told Billy in a stage whisper.

In the living room Mary sat down in the center of the couch while Billy and Freddy sat down on either side of her. Mary’s father sat down in his recliner while Mrs. Broomfield sat down in her own chair. When everyone was seated Mary took a deep breath to prepare herself. “Mom, dad, I’m pregnant,” she finally managed to blurt out.

“Finally,” Mrs. Broomfield said with a sigh.

“I guess this means we don’t have to pretend not to notice your belly anymore,” Mr. Broomfield with a relieved grin. “So, do you know who the father is? Is it Billy or Freddy?”

“You knew,” Mary gaped, “you knew along?”

“Of course, dear,” Mrs. Broomfield said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “After all, we did arrange for the three of you to have the house to yourselves that first night.”

“So, you’ve known about the three of us all along?” Billy asked in a stunned voice, “and you don’t have a problem with it? Not even the fact that Mary and I are twins?”

“Why would we have a problem with something we arranged?” Mr. Broomfield asked.

“So, now I guess we just have to worry about the servants finding out, right?” Freddy asked.

“The servants know all about the three of you,” Mrs. Broomfield said dismissively.

“The servants know about us?” Mary asked, “How much do they know about us?”

“They know that you’re Mary Marvel,” Mrs. Broomfield said, “after all, they’re the ones who have to come up with your school excuses whenever you have to fly off to the rescue as Mary Marvel. And they wanted to know why we wanted them out of the house the same night we were going to be out of the house so we had to tell them. Once we told them what we had in mind they went right along with it.”

“So, now that we can talk freely, I can finally ask; do you know who the father is,” Mr. Broomfield asked, looking back and forth between Billy and Freddy.

“Billy’s the father,” Mary said, rubbing her swollen belly with one hand while she patted Billy’s knee. “Wonder Woman was able to do some scans of the baby and she confirmed that Billy was the father and that the baby is perfectly healthy, in spite of the fact that we’re brother and sister.”

“That is good news,” Mrs. Broomfield said, “at least you don’t have to go through what we did with our daughter.”

“What do you mean, mother?” Mary asked.

“Well, Mary,” Mr. Broomfield said, “you and Billy aren’t the only brother and sister in this room.”

“You and mother,” Mary said, looking back and forth between her adoptive parents.

“That’s right, dear,” Mrs. Broomfield said, “your father and I are brother and sister. Our parents divorced when we were very young, your father grew up on the west coast, and I grew up on the east coast. After the divorce we didn’t see each other again until we were in college. Since both our parents died the summer before my first year in college there was no one left who knew we were brother and sister. When we started dating it was just a lark, it was thrilling to know that we were brother and sister and no one else knew about it, but over time we realized that we loved each other and decided to get married. When we found out I was pregnant we were so happy, but soon after our daughter was born we realized there was a problem. We were both carriers of a rare genetic disorder, and our daughter was dying because of it. When we hired Sarah Primm as Mary’s nurse she didn’t know that she was dying so she was surprised when it happened and that’s when she replaced our Mary with you. Of course we knew what had happened when our little girl went from sickly and dying to healthy and happy, but when we realized that Sarah had replaced our dead baby with an orphan we decided to go along with it, and we’re so happy that we did.”

“We wanted to adopt Billy too,” Mr. Broomfield said, “but we couldn’t figure out how to do it without letting Sarah know that we’d figured out the truth about Mary. When your Uncle Ebenezer came along and adopted you we were relieved, of course we didn’t realize that he was only after your inheritance until it was too late. After he stole your money and turned you out on the street it was too late for us to do anything, we couldn’t even find you for the first few years there. Then Billy Batson, boy journalist hit the airwaves and we knew you would be alright on your own.”

“It’s nice to know that you tried,” Billy said, “but if you had adopted me back then, then Mary and I couldn’t get married now.”

“We thought things might be headed in that direction,” Mary’s mother said. “We thought an intimate backyard wedding would be nice. We’ve already arranged with a justice of the peace to perform the wedding, we just have to tell him when. Did you want to have the wedding before the baby is born? Or after?”

“We haven’t really had a chance to talk about it yet, mother,” Mary admitted. “We thought we’d have to talk you into letting us get married, we haven’t even talked about when or where yet, but a backyard wedding does sound nice.”

“It might be a good idea to get married before you start showing too much,” Billy said, giving Mary’s belly an affectionate pat.

“I think it’s a little late for that,” Mary said, stroking her belly with a happy smile, “but I think you’re right, the sooner we get married, the better.”

“Is this weekend too soon?” Mary’s father asked. “We already have things on stand-by, we just have to come up with a date.”

“This weekend is too early, dear,” Mrs. Broomfield said. “Now that Mary isn’t trying to hide her pregnancy I really need to take her shopping for maternity clothes - and that’s not even counting the wedding dress, even if we find one on the rack it will have to be adjusted for Mary’s condition.”

“What about next weekend, father?” Mary asked. “Is that good for you, Billy.”

“Sounds good to me,” Billy said, “right now it just feels like I’m caught in a tornado and holding on for life.”

“I felt the same way when I got married, Billy” Mr. Broomfield chuckled. “What about you, Freddy, with Billy and Mary getting married isn’t that going to leave you out of the loop.”

“Not at all, sir,” Freddy said with a grin, “Mary and Billy have already promised to let me knock Mary up with her second baby. On top of that I’m engaged to Kara Kent, although we’re keeping the engagement secret for now.”

“Captain Marvel Junior and Supergirl,” Mrs. Broomfield said thoughtfully. “Now why didn’t I think of that match? How long do you plan to keep the engagement secret? Have you thought about a wedding location yet? We can always open the back yard to the two of you too.”

“Our plan right now is to wait until after Kara’s baby is born before we start dating openly, and the wedding will probably be a few months after that, but I think Kara would like a backyard wedding, but she might want it to be at her parents farm.”

“I can understand that,” Mrs. Broomfield admitted, “but we do consider you to be part of our family since you don’t have any of your own, so if you can talk Kara into letting us help out, we’d appreciate it.”

“I’ll see what I can do, thank you,” Freddy promised.

“Now, if that’s all we have to reveal or discuss for the night, why don’t you call Supergirl and ask her to join you for a night of celebration?” Mr. Broomfield suggested.

“Are you sure you don’t mind?” Billy asked.

“As we said before, why would we mind the four of you having a wild sex party to celebrate your engagements? It was our idea.”

“Thank you, dad, mom,” Mary said, giving both of her parents a hug that pushed her swollen belly against them.

“Enjoy yourselves, kids,” Mrs. Broomfield called back to them as they left the room. Just before she and her husband left the room Mary’s mother turned back, “by the way, Mary, when it’s available I’d like one of those Mary Marvelous patented pussy pleasers for myself.”